F1 2014 • Eurogamer.net

Layoffs hit F1 and Dirt developer Codemasters

Are the wheels coming off Britain's long-serving studio?

Layoffs have hit UK racing game developer Codemasters, sources close to the studio tell Eurogamer.

FIFA 15 holds off The Evil Within, Borderlands in UK chart

Meanwhile, F1 2014 swerves into 10th.

The Evil Within and Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel have arrived in the UK all-formats chart in second and third places, respectively.

F1 2014 review

To ERS is human.

There's a great review of Midway's half-arsed Olympic Hockey Nagano '98 from the very early days of IGN, a scathing 0.0 score delivered with a pithy, one-sentence summary: "We'll post a new review when Midway releases a new game."

It's always tempting to go the same route when presented with the latest iteration in an ongoing sports franchise, and it's a perennial problem for many series where innovation must be seen to be done to justify another annual instalment. FIFA's endless tinkering has been known to spoil an otherwise excellent formula - as seems to be the case this year - while poor Codemasters doesn't quite have the means to do even that. F1 2014 isn't just last year's game prettied up with a selection of season-specific skins, it's actually significantly less than last year's offering, with the classic cars that bolstered F1 2013 dropped entirely. It's also only available on last-gen consoles and PC.

What you're getting here, then, is a selection of new car models, a couple of new tracks - the Red Bull Ring that returned to the calendar this season, a short track that takes in the glorious inclines of the Austrian countryside, as well as the Sochi Autodrom whose superb off-camber turn 3 couldn't make up for a thunderously dull debut for the Russian Grand Prix this weekend past - and... there's very little else. When an entirely inconsequential one-lap tutorial is being touted on the back of the box as a standout new feature, you know it's slim pickings.